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In 2014, the Justice Department and Treasury Department netted $4.5 billion through civil forfeiture. Civil forfeiture gives law enforcement the power to seize cash, cars and houses if they suspect the property is tied to criminal activity. (Photo: Brendan McDermid/Reuters/Newscom)

For federal state and local law enforcement agencies, a little-known practice giving them the power to take Americans’ property, cash, and cars has proven to be a boon over the last decade.

According to a new report from the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, the federal government has seen a substantial increase over the last 13 years in the amount of money deposited into forfeiture funds governed

According to media accounts, there is some movement on the state budget, and it sounds like a bad deal for taxpayers: “Under the preliminary deal, state spending would rise to $30.7 billion, up about 6 percent from last year’s approved budget. It would be boosted by about $500 million in slot-machine gambling revenue that is currently passed along to homeowners as school property tax cuts. That money would be diverted into a restricted account to pay for public school employee pension obligations. Read More

Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the Spring 2015 print edition of the Lehigh Valley Commentator. This important issue for the taxpayers and homeowners is still of vital importance and must soon be resolved!

By Richard Shuker

It appears the pension crisis has come full circle, as we now have a Democrat Governor and Democrat legislators, who were opposed to fixing the pension situation during the last four (4) years, now are on board with a fix proposed by Governor Wolf. But, will they address the real problem or just patch it, and kick the can down the road?

As reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the SERS had a return of 6.4%, which was below the target rate of 7.5%, according to

HARRISBURG — A senior judge sparring with Attorney General Kathleen Kane over her release of his emails will present state and federal law enforcement next week with details of ethical violations and crimes he contends she committed.

Northumberland Common Pleas Judge Barry Feudale, removed as a statewide grand jury judge at Kane’s urging in 2013, on Friday issued a blistering statement reiterating his assertions that she committed multiple crimes, including unauthorized access to his chambers when several sensitive documents were taken.

Kane is “the most corrupt, dishonest, deceptive politically motivated ‘public servant’ I have encountered in my 28 years as a judge,” Feudale said.

by Marita Noon at NetRight Daily and Americans for Limited Government.

Most of us feel that time goes by faster as we get older. It does. When you are five years old, one year represents 20 percent of your life. Yet, when you are fifty, that same calendar year is only 2 percent of your life — making that single timeframe much smaller. Those of us involved in fighting the bad energy policies coming out of Washington have a similar feeling: the second term of the Obama Administration seems to be throwing much more at us and at such speed that we can barely

The PA Liberty Alliance has been one of the more effective leaders in the fight to see PA School Property Taxes eliminated through SB/HB 76. The problem has been opposition to the bill from unions who make donations to our elected officials. But the PA Liberty Alliance has found ways to turn some of those politicians around. The Alliance is composed of people from a number of Taxpayer, Tea Party/Patriot groups. They lobby the politicians for passage of 76. When they find an elected official not on board, they rally the forces and visit the politician’s district to educate the people on the benefits of 76, circulate petitions in support of 76 and finally set up a town hall meeting for the people to

The following article first appeared in the Winter 2010 issue, issue #9, of The Lehigh Valley Commentator.

By Andrew Geissinger

In his 1850 pamphlet, “What Is Seen, and What Is Not Seen,” the French economic journalist, Frederic Bastiat, noted that “In the economic sphere . . . a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen.”

Bastiat goes on to say that “There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that

This article first appeared in issue #14, Spring 2011, of the Lehigh Valley Commentator.

By Andrew Geissinger

“The claims of government development czars are almost always overblown, in part because they consider only the more visible side of the ledger. The downside factors of state incentive packages—from the anti-competitive effects on non-favored firms to the opportunity cost of forgoing a more general tax reduction—are rarely factored into the equation.”

Lawrence W. Reed President, Foundation for Economic Education

The Lehigh Valley’s latest economic development initiative was unveiled by Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski on March 2 [2011]. It is called the Allentown Entertainment District and will include a hockey arena as well as a community events center. The Philadelphia Flyers’ minor league Phantoms ice hockey team